The University of the Western Cape has officially opened the doors to its new mobile dental clinic; the clinic will serve underprivileged communities.
Cape Town, South Africa (11 November 2022) – Nobody loves going to the dentist but it is an essential part of life. Having a sore tooth is the worst and not every South African can access a dentist nearby, which is why the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) new mobile dental clinic is something to celebrate!
UWC’s dental community outreach project is celebrating the launch of its newly improved mobile clinic. The previous mobile clinic was in operation for 44 years. The new, R3-million mobile dental clinic is said to be the biggest such clinic in South Africa. With additional chairs, the teams will be able to provide treatment and care to even more impoverished communities in the Western Cape. The mobile clinic also gives dentistry students greater opportunities to take part in clinical training.
UWC raised R1-million towards the clinic and worked in partnership with Colgate-Palmolive, the Rotary Club of the Waterfront and the Dental Wellness Foundation.
The new clinic now has three dental chairs, a massive improvement on the previous truck that only had space for two. It also has a high-tech intra-oral camera that will be linked to the Faculty of Dentistry, this will enable a faster consultation process should the mobile team need advice from colleagues at the faculty.
“The reason I feel so passionate about this is because your gift will make an immeasurable difference to the lower- and middle-income communities in the Western Cape for whom dental care and treatments are too expensive”.
“To be able to work with these communities has been a fundamental pillar of our existence as a university. We pride ourselves on all three of our missions: teaching and learning, research and community engagement. But community engagement is very close to our hearts”. – Professor Tyrone Pretorius, UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor
The clinic is an excellent concept and goes along with what the world’s best universities are able to provide their students; real-life community outreach-based learning, only with a very feel-good side too!
“We serve the poorest of the poor, those who will never access care. We develop young minds and expose them to communities, and in doing so, we teach them the responsibility they have in terms of giving back in one of the most unequal countries in the world”. – Professor Veersamy Yengopal, Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry
The clinic has already touched so many lives. Not only has it saved teeth but the teams involved have also shared vital educational information related to healthy teeth and good dental practices.
“We have students who need patients to practice on and we have a community that needs someone to provide them with a service. It’s a win-win situation. Wherever we go our students are learning and our patients are benefiting. One such patient comes to mind – she didn’t know what a filling was, but agreed that we could fill her badly decayed front teeth. When we gave her a mirror to see what we had done, tears of joy ran down her cheeks! This is what makes it worthwhile spending my Saturdays working.” – Professor Rob Barrie, former head of community outreach at the Dentistry Faculty
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